21 August 2008

My friend Stephen was here visiting from England for a week. It was so great having him here. He never fails to make me laugh and cheer me up - even if it is at my own expense, which it typically is!

On Sunday we had a family picnic for my cousin Andrew's birthday (the little one on the right). He turned 10 years old. It was so wonderful to spend the day with my family. After the picnic, we had the boys come over to our place for a sleep over. They absolutely love Stephen and have so much fun with him. We played hide & seek (not an easy game in a one bedroom apartment), we wrestled, had pillow fights and ate lots of popsicles. We went to Top Pot the next morning for breakfast (we bribed them into bed with promises of donuts). It was a cloudy day, which is something we haven't seen for weeks in Seattle. We decided to take a walk to the park and splash in the puddles. We played on the swings and slides and teeter totters and tossed a frisbee until it was pouring down rain. We got soaking wet but it was great. For lunch we made toasted cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. We all bundled up in blankets and watched The Munsters on DVD.

We had so much fun together. It made me forget for a while about everything else going on in my head and in my heart. A much needed dreamy day and mental vacation from reality.

10 August 2008

07 August 2008

I love hot summer afternoon naps. Sometimes they last for hours. These are other memories I want to keep - just like the cheese & crackers one I posted a few weeks ago.

Mine & Ashley's friend Stephen flew in from London last night. We took him to the train station early this morning. He's going to visit friends in Portland for a week and then will come back to stay with us for six days. I miss him so much already! It's a good thing he's coming back so soon. He's so easy to have fun with. We're always really silly together and laugh a lot.

Our apartment is still very hot, even though the sun has set and we have had fans on all day. It's making me sleepy. Time for bed.

05 August 2008

I went blueberry picking with Peggi on Sunday. It was so fun and relaxing. I loved ducking through the rows of blueberry bushes, getting twigs and leaves stuck in my hair, and feeling the excitement of discovering a bunch of ripe berries hiding on the very tippy tops. Peggi and I talked while we picked at first, but then started wandering in our own directions. I thought thoughts and sang songs and sometimes just stood there and pretended I was all alone in my own little blueberry forest. I would like to take a blanket out there sometime, find a hidden place to nestle up in and take a long nap, or maybe build a little home amongst the berries and live there.

I am very sleepy today. I had really vivid, strange dreams last night that involved large, billowing purple and turquoise storm clouds, flying horses, the end of the world, and some of the people in my life that I love most. I woke up early to meet my friend Evan for coffee. He told me about his family vacation to the coast of Maine where they stayed at a place that used to be girl scout camp in the early 1900s. He said all they did was sleep, read, do puzzles, sail and swim. It reminded me of my family vacations to Cannon Beach and Lake Crescent. We used to do those very same things every summer. I really miss times like those. I wish it was easier to coordinate and plan things like that still, but it's hard now that we're all growing up, have jobs and bills and other priorities. I would give anything to be able to escape right now with my parents, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles, my little cousins and my dear grandma. It would be so dreamy.

I'm going to take a nap now, and pretend that the cars driving down the 5 just outside my window are actually the sounds of the waves crashing at the ocean.